A method may include providing a set of features in a mask layer, wherein a given feature comprises a first dimension along a first direction, second dimension along a second direction, orthogonal to the first direction, and directing an angled ion beam to a first side region of the set of features in a first exposure, wherein the first side region is etched a first amount along the first direction. The method may include directing an angled deposition beam to a second side region of the set of features in a second exposure, wherein a protective layer is formed on the second side region, the second side region being oriented perpendicularly with respect to the first side region. The method may include directing the angled ion beam to the first side region in a third exposure, wherein the first side region is etched a second amount along the first direction.

Disclosed is a thin film stress control-based coating method for large-area coating. The method uses a two-step coating process in which a first coating layer that is a relatively low-hardness layer is primarily formed on a base member and a second coating layer that is a relatively high-hardness layer is secondarily formed on the first coating layer. The method can form a high-density coating structure that is hardly peeled off over a relatively large area compared to conventional coating methods by suppressing internal stress of the coating layers of the coating structure. Further disclosed is a coating structure manufactured by the same method.

A multi-layer coating on an outer surface of a substrate includes a first layer applied directly to the outer surface of the substrate. The first layer includes diamond-like carbon (DLC) configured to mitigate metal whisker formation. A second layer is applied on a top surface of the first layer. The second layer is a conformal coating that includes a second material configured to bind to the top surface of the first layer and fill any microfractures that may form in the first layer. Optionally, a third layer is applied on a top surface of the second layer and includes DLC configured to protect the second layer from oxidation and degradation.

Methods for producing layered nanocarbon structures placing a workpiece in a working chamber, applying a vacuum to the chamber, processing the workpiece surface with gas ions, applying a material sublayer to the workpiece surface, depositing carbon ions from a carbon plasma on the workpiece surface to apply an amorphous diamond-like sp3 carbon coating layer on the workpiece surface. The methods include irradiating the growing carbon coating with accelerated ions of an inert gas at a first energy range to apply a graphite sp2 carbon coating layer on the sp3 carbon coating layer and irradiating the growing carbon coating with accelerated ions of the inert gas at a second energy range, different from the first energy range, to apply a linear chain and polymer sp1 carbon coating layer on the sp2 carbon coating layer.

Energy bands of a thin film containing molecular clusters are tuned by controlling the size and the charge of the clusters during thin film deposition. Using atomic layer deposition, an ionic cluster film is formed in the gate region of a nanometer-scale transistor to adjust the threshold voltage, and a neutral cluster film is formed in the source and drain regions to adjust contact resistance. A work function semiconductor material such as a silver bromide or a lanthanum oxide is deposited so as to include clusters of different sizes such as dimers, trimers, and tetramers, formed from isolated monomers. A type of Atomic Layer Deposition system is used to deposit on semiconductor wafers molecular clusters to form thin film junctions having selected energy gaps. A beam of ions contains different ionic clusters which are then selected for deposition by passing the beam through a filter in which different apertures select clusters based on size and orientation.

A method for manufacturing an optical lens using an ion-assisted deposition apparatus that comprises an ion source includes: forming, on a lens substrate made of a material containing 40 mass % or more of fluoride, a first lower layer of an anti-reflection film of the optical lens, wherein the first lower layer is a fluoride layer; forming, on the first lower layer, a second lower layer of the anti-reflection film; forming on the second lower layer, one or more intermediate layers of the antireflection film; forming, on the one or more intermediate layers, an uppermost layer of the anti-reflection film; and irradiating, using the ion source, the lens substrate with ions.

A method to transfer a layer of harder thin film substrate onto a softer, flexible substrate. In particular, the present invention provides a method to deposit a layer of sapphire thin film on to a softer and flexible substrate e.g. quartz, fused silica, silicon, glass, toughened glass, PET, polymers, plastics, paper and fabrics. This combination provides the hardness of sapphire thin film to softer flexible substrates.

Embodiments of the disclosure generally relate to methods of forming gratings. The method includes depositing a resist material on a grating material disposed over a substrate, patterning the resist material into a resist layer, projecting a first ion beam to the first device area to form a first plurality of gratings, and projecting a second ion beam to the second device area to form a second plurality of gratings. Using a patterned resist layer allows for projecting an ion beam over a large area, which is often easier than focusing the ion beam in a specific area.

The present invention relates to a method of forming a coating layer having plasma resistance, the method comprising steps of: preparing a substrate by placing the substrate in a substrate fixing device inside a process chamber; evaporating a Y.sub.2O.sub.3 deposition material provided in a solid form in an electron beam source by irradiating an electron beam on the Y.sub.2O.sub.3 deposition material; generating radical particles having activation energy by injecting a process gas containing oxygen for forming radicals into a RF energy beam source; irradiating an RF energy beam including the radical particles generated in the RF energy beam source, toward the substrate; depositing a thin film in which the evaporated deposition material is deposited on the substrate by being assisted by the RF energy beam, and densifying the thin film in which the deposition material deposited on the substrate forms a densified film by ion bombardment of the RF energy beam.

A metallic nano-twinned thin film structure and a method for forming the same are provided. The metallic nano-twinned thin film structure includes a substrate, an adhesive-lattice-buffer layer over the substrate, and a single-layer or multi-layer metallic nano-twinned thin film over the adhesive-lattice-buffer layer. The metallic nano-twinned thin film includes parallel-arranged twin boundaries (Σ3+Σ9). In a cross-sectional view of the metallic nano-twinned thin film, the parallel-arranged twin boundaries account for 30% to 90% of total twin boundaries. The parallel-arranged twin boundaries include 80% to 99% of crystal orientation [111]. The single-layer metallic nano-twinned thin film includes copper, gold, palladium or nickel. The multi-layer metallic nano-twinned thin films are respectively composed of silver, copper, gold, palladium or nickel.